As integrated circuit technology progresses, the feature sizes of the circuitry and the voltages used to stimulate them continue to decline. As voltages decrease, it becomes more difficult to sense particular voltages. Consider for example the sense amplifier (sense amp) 30 of FIG. 1. Such a sense amp is traditionally used in Dynamic Random Access Memories (DRAMs) 10 and is typical in design, comprising cross-coupled P-channel (PCH) and N-channel (NCH) transistors in a flip-flop configuration to detect data on at least one column (Digit or Digit*) in a memory array.
As operating voltages are lowered, it can become more difficult for the sense amp 30 to properly function. In particular, the inventors have noticed that the N-channel (NCH) transistors in the sense amp 30 may not turn on (or may not turn on enough) when desired because the sensed voltages are relatively small compared to the threshold voltage of the NCH transistors (NVt). It is desired to remedy this problem, and more generally to provide a solution to reduced sensing margins caused by lower operating voltages in other non-sense-amp contexts as well, such as in general Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) circuitry.